The Arkansas Department of Education released today the 2017 Arkansas School Performance Reports. The reports, which reflect information from the 2016-2017 school year, highlight student academic achievement and growth, graduation rate, and school quality and student success for public schools in the state.
As a result of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Arkansas is able to include additional information that will give educators, parents and communities a better picture of overall school success. For example, for the first time ever, the ESSA School Index score (a calculation that includes students’ weighted achievement and growth on state required assessments for grades three through 10, graduation rates, and school quality and student success) provides parents an in-depth report of schools’ progress toward the approved indicators.
The Accountability At-a-Glance provides the letter grades for schools, which are based on ESSA School Index scores, and visuals that provide information about the overall ESSA School Index score and the overall score for six subgroups. Each school is assigned to a grade span based on the grades the school serves or the grade range of the school.
ADE spent numerous hours obtaining stakeholder feedback throughout the process of developing Arkansas’ accountability plan under ESSA. In addition, a total of seven meetings with educators, parents, students and education associations were held to obtain feedback on the letter grade score ranges. School districts have had the opportunity to review their ESSA School Index scores on multiple occasions, and ADE team members held numerous regional meetings with district personnel to provide information about the scores and obtain feedback prior to the release of the report cards.
While comprehensive, the performance reports are just one tool parents, schools and communities can use to determine student and school success. The tool should be used to encourage ongoing communication between all stakeholders as they work together to improve education for all students. Letters to parents and educators explaining the range of indicator scores for each letter grade or school rating are available at http://www.arkansased.gov/divisions/public-school-accountability/school-performance/report-card.
The Accountability At-a-Glance, School Report Card and ESSA School Index Report are available on ADE’s My School Info website at https://myschoolinfo.arkansas.gov. For assistance regarding how to access the information available in My School Info, please see the following videos:
How to View the Accountability At-A-Glance: https://youtu.be/V3-M2fyUZew.
How to View the ESSA School Index Report: https://youtu.be/_2Er_2xf-u0.
How to View the School Report Card: https://youtu.be/q6Brz06xuVs.
Additional informational documents are available at https://bit.ly/2GvljUD.
